The Machine Project Field Guide to Grand Park

April – June 2014
Los Angeles, CA

Projects

Los Angeles Department of Weather Modification – Chris Kallmyer

June 10 – 13 // 11:00am to 2:00pm

Weather Opera, June 12 // 8:00pm

The Los Angeles Department of Weather Modification (LADWM) is dedicated to investigating the changing weather through sound, spirit, and perception. LADWM has established a field office in Grand Park altering weather experiences for downtown inhabitants. We will create weather through immersive environments of rain, fog, wind, and thunderstorms. Daily we will host lunchtime weather talks to present issues surrounding the weather and Los Angeles.

Tuesday: A collective meditation on rain and drought with music to modify the weather in mind and body. We will mindfully encourage rainfall in a month that averages 0.09 inches of rain.

Wednesday: An immersive wind environment with the sound and sensation of a windy winter day.

Thursday: Experience San Francisco’s dense fog and the Golden Gate Bridge’s foghorns manifest for one afternoon.

Thursday at 8pm: An opera investigating wind, rain, and the lore surrounding our relationship with the weather in Los Angeles. We lament weather modification gone awry, and explore our changing environment through autotuned weather reports, weather radio, and music composed by the LADWM.

Machine Project Roaming Theater

April – June 2014

Free

Experience spontaneous theatrical performances from the Roaming Theatre. We commissioned 30 artists to create short pop-up performances that will appear throughout the park from April to June.

Performance Schedule:

Johanna Hedva & Patrick Ballard

Tuesday, June 24th 2014 // 1pm
A puppet/experimental-comedy show about the dualities of parallax as told by a pair of cassowaries.

Grand Rounds – Elana Mann

Tuesdays in May

12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Join artist Elana Mann and facilitator Camilo Cruz every Tuesday in May for informal discussions with Los Angeles County and City employees. These conversations will be on a different block each week and will center on the different voices, ears, and roles both public officials and citizens use to invigorate communities.

June

Look out for the installation of ear horns created by the artist throughout the park in the month of June. These sonic artworks will play original sounds recorded at the lunchtime conversations.

Descriptions of Los Angeles – Raymond Chandler

April – June

The great Los Angeles detective novelist Raymond Chandler is justly known for his depictions of his city and its environs. A selection of descriptive excerpts from Chandler’s novels will be heard each evening at dusk in Olive Court. (Chandler selections curated and read by Machine Poet Laureate Anthony McCann.)

Machine Project Roaming Theater

Past Performances:

Daniel Corral

Thursday, June 5th // 12:15pm
A miniaturized one-man band plays three whimsical solos for accordion, toy piano, and percussion.

Jen Hofer

Tuesday, May 27th // 5pm
“Tiny Texts: Escritorio público y poético”. If you could write a mini poem or micro letter to anyone without having to do the writing yourself, what would you say, and to whom? The performance is complete when the person mails or gives the text to the recipient.

Rebecca Bruno

Tuesday, May 20th // 1:15pm
A staged remembrance of unknown glory re-imagines the elegant port de bras (movement of the arms) of the ritual ballet reverence to evoke soft expression at the intersection of Franca’s Ballet Russe days and the present moment.

Justin Streichman and Milka Djordjevich

Tuesday, May 6th // 1pm
Entrances/and Exits. In this performance Milka and Justin use the threshold of the theater as the place between what was and what is.

Yelena Zhelezov

Sunday, May 4th 2014 // 2pm
A performance that considers the ratio of landscape to human physicality, and of one’s ability to scale the expanses of LA urban planning. Who is to change the proportion for the optimal relationship, the body or the landscape? How far can we reach out using just one body part?

Paul Fraser and Emma Zakes Green

Sunday, May 4th 2014 // 2:45pm
Composer/Musician Paul Fraser and Performer/Storyteller Emma Zakes Green will perform a children’s story based on Rip Van Winkle, reimagined for Grand Park and City Hall. Paul will perform live foley and Emma will perform many, many characters.

Mecca Vazie Andrews

Heather Hewko

Thursday, May 1st 2014 // 1:45pm
The rigorous movement throughout Within/Without pushes Hewko to exhaustion in order to stray from over analyzing the movement/moment, thus creating something true to the body and mind. With each performance, there is a healing element for the performer.

James Cowan

Monday, April 28th 2014 // 1pm
Movement-Theater artist James Cowan creates a new solo performance that explores the rhythms and variations of a heartbeat through tap-movement. To accompany this tap performance, he will recite some Kafka.